Pope makes first curia appointment

CAROL GLATZ
Catholic News Service

1/01/70

Franciscan Father Jose Rodriguez Carballo is pictured during a chapter meeting in Assisi, Italy, in 2009. The superior general of the Order of Friars Minor has been appointed by Pope Francis as secretary of the Vatican office that oversees the world's religious orders. It was the new pope's first curial appointment.

VATICAN CITY - In his first appointment to the curia, Pope
Francis named the superior of the Franciscans as secretary of
the Vatican office that oversees the world's religious
orders.

Archbishop-designate Jose Rodriguez Carballo, 59, will hold
the number two post at the Congregation for Institutes of
Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, which is
led by Brazilian Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz.

The Spanish-born minister general of the Order of Friars
Minor fills a post left vacant in October 2012 when U.S.
Redemptorist Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin was appointed to lead
the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.

Archbishop-designate Rodriguez's appointment comes as the
congregation is wrapping up an apostolic visitation of
women's religious orders in the United States. Begun in 2009,
its aim was to study the community, prayer and apostolic life
of the orders to learn why the number of religious women in
the United States had declined so sharply since the 1960s.

The congregation has been reviewing and drawing up responses
to the findings of the Vatican-appointed apostolic visitor as
well as at least 400 other reports from the sisters who
visited each community and from many of the communities
themselves.

In a letter addressed to his brother Franciscans around the
world, and released on the order's website when the Vatican
announced his appointment April 6, Archbishop-designate
Rodriguez said the nomination brought him both "joy and
sadness."

Joy because it showed God's continued trust in him and
because Pope Francis entrusted him with "a great
responsibility to serve religious and consecrated life." He
said it was also a sign of the pope's "confidence in me and
the Order" of Friars Minor.

He added that he was sad to leave behind his fellow friars,
their communal life and moments of prayer together.

However, "It comforts me to keep working for the life I
love," both the life of a religious and Franciscan, he said
in the letter.

In a similar letter to the Poor Clares, which includes all
monasteries of cloistered nuns professing the Rule of St.
Clare as well as the Sisters of the Annunciation and the
Conceptionists, he said he believed "in the importance and
necessity of your contemplative mission in the church and in
the world."

"I believe in you, since I know the holiness that hides
behind the walls of your monasteries. Count on me as I count
on you," he wrote.

He said Italian Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary
of state, was scheduled to be the principle consecrator at
his episcopal ordination May 18, the eve of Pentecost, in
Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

The archbishop-designate headed the Friars Minor since 2003,
and since 2012 had been serving as president of the Union of
Superiors General, the international organization for the
heads of men's religious orders.

Born in Lodoselo, Spain, in 1953, he joined the Franciscans
in 1970 and was ordained a priest seven years later at the
age of 23, according to his biography on the order's website.

He studied at the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem
and the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, then taught
Scripture studies at the major seminary in Vigo, Spain, and
for the theological faculty of Santiago de Compostela. He
also taught theology of consecrated life and served as
formation director for young religious.

He served as president of the Union of Franciscan Provincial
Ministers of Europe from 1993 to 1997.

In 2003, he was elected Minister General of the Order of
Friars Minor - the 119th successor of St. Francis of Assisi.
He was re-elected for another six-year term in 2009,
overseeing about 15,000 Franciscans who work in 113
countries.

After his re-election, he told reporters Franciscans see
their role as being guardians of hope, messengers of the
culture of life, and bridge-builders linking cultures and
religions.

Franciscans "cannot turn our backs on the world, especially
on the poorest," he said, explaining that members of the
order demonstrate their love for the world by being fully
engaged in it, and by serving the needs of all people.

"The world is not just a battlefield; it is above all an
opportunity to bring the Gospel to society" and God's love to
all people, he added.

In a world suffering from human rights' violations, a global
economic meltdown, environmental disaster in many regions and
forced migration, the Gospel can provide responses, he said.